Strong bishops and weak pawns

by Karsten Müller
11/6/2018 – Endings with bishops of opposite colours tend to be drawish, but endings with bishops of the same colour also tend to be drawish. Precision is needed, however.
Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.

Beware of zugswang

White's task is to keep Black's king and bishop at bay

 
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78...Kf6 Endings with bishops of opposite colours tend to be drawish - but endings with bishops of the same colour also tend to be drawish. However, precision is needed.
White to move and draw
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Thorhallsson,T2416Bjornsson,S22952018B07Icelandic Open 201810.2

Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.

Karsten Mueller in ChessBase Magazine

Do you like these lessons? There are plenty more by internationally renowned endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine, where you will also find openings articles and surveys, tactics, and of course annotations by the world's top grandmasters.

Apart from his regular columns and video lectures in ChessBase Magazine there is a whole series of training DVDs by Karsten Mueller, which are bestsellers in the ChessBase Shop.

Karsten Mueller

Karsten Mueller regularly presents endgame lessons in the ChessBase Video Portal

ChessBase Magazine #186

The editor’s top ten:

  1. CBM 184Nimble knights against mighty bishops: Ian Nepomniachtchi reveals to you the subtleties of his win against Kramnik.
  2. Pseudo-fortress cracked open! Let Peter Heine Nielsen show you how at the very last minute Carlsen drew level with Caruana and Aronian in Saint Louis.
  3. Masterpiece with rook sacrifice: Enjoy Daniel King’s video analysis of Aronian-Grischuk from the Sinquefield Cup.
  4. Attack! Attack! Attack!” Together with GM Simon Williams carry out a deadly attack, studded with numerous sacrifices.
  5. Ten moves to your goal: Accompany Oliver Reeh "Step by step to checkmate". (Video)
  6. You think you have seen it all? Then take a look at "Nakamuras incredible win of a pawn".
  7. A dangerous and fun way to play”: Let Simon Williams make you an enthusiast of the Sicilian Wing Gambit! (Video)
  8. Mutual Isolanis": Strategy expert Mihail Marin explains the subtleties of the piece play with isolated d-pawns.
  9. Active on move three: Our new author Robert Hungaski shows how to accelerate matters with Black in the Queen's Gambit Accepted.
  10. A zugzwang to imitate: Let endgame expert Karsten Müller demonstrate the winning technique to you by means of the game Kovalev-Kramnik.

Links

Karsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.

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Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 11/7/2018 04:01
Always those miserable tactics in the way of my deep plans... Forgot about the discovered check after Kxb3; I stand corrected!
Karsten Müller Karsten Müller 11/7/2018 02:22
A very deep plan indeed! But White can defend against the extremely long king march: Your main line until 82...Kc6 and then for example 83.Ke3 Kc5 84.Be6 Kb4 85.Kd2 Bg2 86.Bd5 Bh3 87.Kc2 and White draws.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 11/7/2018 12:48
My earlier comment has gone missing (again).
I still think black is winning after 79 Bf5. Black should get his bishop to the c8-h3 diagonal.
First go with the king to the queenside. 79... Ke7 80 Bc8 (80 Kf2 Bh1 81 Kg1? Bf3) 80... Kd8 81 Be6 Kc7 82 Bg4 (82 Bd5 Bh3 83 Ke3 Bg4 84 Kd2 Kd7 and the black king returns to the kingside, winning as in the game continuation) 82... Kc6 83 Bf5 Kc5 84 Kc3 Bg2 (Zugzwang) 85 Bg6 Bh3 86 Be8 Bg4 (again Zugzwang, white must let the black king either to c6 or b4: 87 Bb5 Bf3 88 Kd3 Kb4) 87 Bg6 Kc6 and again the king returns to the kingside. Am I missing something?
Sampru Sampru 11/6/2018 03:00
This is not easy. I also thought that the white king should go to e3 and if the black king were to try to outflank via f1, the white bishop would go to a6/b5 to set up a discovery. However, the black bishop would take away one of those squares and put white in zugzwang.
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